New BLM Director called to uphold federal Law to protect Wild Horses as ranchers threaten illegal roundups

Washington, DC (April 8, 2014) — Today, as the U.S. Senate confirmed Neil Kornze as the director of the Interior Department Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign, its parent organization Return to Freedom and coalition partner The Cloud Foundation called upon the new BLM director to vigorously uphold federal law in the face of threats by ranchers in Utah and Nevada to illegally capture and remove federally-protected wild horses from public lands.

Across the West, ranchers are taking aim at wild horses because they view them as competition for cheap, taxpayer-subsidized livestock grazing on public lands. However, the number of wild horses on BLM land – fewer than 35,000 on nearly 27 million acres– pales in comparison to the millions of livestock that graze on 155 million acres of BLM land in the West.

“We expect Director Kornze to impose a zero tolerance policy toward threats of illegal action by ranchers who are given the privilege of grazing their privately-owned livestock on our public lands,” said Suzanne Roy, AWHPC director. “The BLM is mandated to protect wild horses, while livestock grazing is authorized entirely at the discretion of the Interior Department.”

“These are America’s horses, and the public strongly supports their protection on our public lands,” said Neda DeMayo, President of Return to Freedom and Founder of the AWHPC coalition. “The BLM must stop catering to special interests and start managing our public lands for the interests of the American taxpayers, wildlife and the environment.”

“American taxpayers already bear the heavy burden of the federal livestock program,” said Ginger Kathrens, Executive Director of The Cloud Foundation. “The BLM kowtowing to ultimatums from welfare ranchers’ sets a dangerous precedent that could impact not only wild horses but all the uses of public lands. It’s time for Director Kornze to reverse course. The BLM needs do decide who they manage the public lands for – welfare ranchers or the public at large.”

Late yesterday, attorneys for the groups sent a strongly-worded letter to the Iron County, Utah Board of Commissioners and the Utah BLM in response to a threat by local officials to round up wild horses on BLM lands in southwestern Utah.

The letter warns that any attempt by local officials to round up wild horses would be a federal crime, and that the BLM itself cannot round up horses without proper analysis and disclosure under the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act as well as the National Environmental Policy Act.

“ . . . The statutes at issue here provide a clear preference for protecting wild horses and burros over private livestock when these animals come into conflict on public lands,” wrote Katherine Meyer of Meyer, Glitzenstein and Crystal a Washington, DC-based public interest law firm representing the advocates. “BLM must stop caving to the private financial interests of livestock owners whenever they complain about the protected wild horses using limited resources that are available on such lands. These horses belong to everyone . . . . Accordingly, they must be protected to the greatest extent of the law.”

9 thoughts on “New BLM Director called to uphold federal Law to protect Wild Horses as ranchers threaten illegal roundups”

For every wild horse that is removed or killed, all the ranchers that use the public land in that state should be required to remove 100 of their livestock from the lands that they are trying to open up for their use. Why are they making money for their benefit and not the public`s? If the public wanted to grow food type stuff, I bet that they would have to pay fair market value for the use. It is time that the ranchers pay for the use of the public land not just pennies on the dollar per acre. They are making money while laughing at the public. If the employees of the BLM are helping the ranchers in their quest to remove the wild horses they need to be charged with robbing the public of their wild horses and the land that was given to the same horses.

Dear KDKGABBY, Alot of what you said makes perfect sense, no horse needs to die , at the hands of these Morons from Hell…… good sense is not something they even understand , all they know is murder and maim and most of all they are experts at Greed…………..The BLM are not paid taxes from American citizens to do this , they are paid to Protect and Preserve, it is a relatively simple task , as we all know …….Thats way I say we need to form a agency of people who know what this involves ,they are all right here dont have to look far , we can do this run it parallel to the BLM , and………………..eventually phase them out !!!!

If they stop being sneaky in their roundups and have real horse people pick out the horses that are not healthy or not of the best conformation put them in the holding pens, geld the stallions so they do not pass on their poor genes. If the mares are keep away from any stallions they will not pass on their bad genes. why is this so hard to figure out, breeders do not use poor quality stock, so why let poor quality wild stock breed? this should cut down on the excess horses that are not adoptable.
As far as the private OWNED livestock there needs to be a larger fee charge for the use of the public owned land. these animals have NO more right to the grass than the wild protected horses that the government passed a bill to PROTECT the same horses from harassment in 1971.

The BLM may have the idea that if ranchers round up the mustangs and sell them to a kill buyer that takes all of the responsibility for what happens to the horses off of them. I believe that this is what has been tossed around the BLM. For this corrupt organization to even mention slaughtering a federally protected animal behind closed doors really shows what they are. Keep in mind that according to the White Paper the BLM was sending loads of horses to slaughter through a kill buyer friend during the 90s. The guy that was the acting director is the person that exposed it and he was pushed out. If the guy could have kept his job he would have stopped it and possibly the illegal round ups as well. Get rid of the welfare ranchers, that alone would stop the roundups because all of the complaining about the horses is coming directly from them and no one else.